Getting tired of finding and fixing assets.

[gremlin1812]

G’Day All, I’m sure I am not alone here; I’m getting tired of the continual battle to find missing assets and then fixing them. I never had this much trouble in MSTS (which I still use) and I am seriously thinking of abandoning Trainz, at least until more is done to make things easier for the user = customer = income.
I think of the almost 12 months I have had Trainz I have spent at least 80% of the time finding and fixing.
Even a lot of the routes made for TS10 have a lot of non DLS/built in assets.. I can understand why some creators don’t want to put their assets on the DLS and maybe N3V have to rethink there policies here so as to encourage more creations onto the DLS as the easier it is for the user the more people = customers will be attracted/retained in Trainz.
Just my view for what it is worth.
Regards
Barrie

 

[whitepass]

The errors in content on the DLS are being fixed, slowly.

 

[Originalwelshborder]

Gremlin1812-
Very reasonable point, but it's not Auran's fault that users upload faulty assets, or items with missing dependancies! Some problems arise because all creators do not load their content on the DLS but then others use those items in content that is uploaded.

There is perhaps an onus on the content authors to revise their creations to make them compatible with the current version of Trainz, or perhaps all old, incompatible, content should be removed from the DLS? Perhaps there should be an archive DLS?

But it has all been provided free, so can we really criticise the authors, or Auran,-hardly.

A dilemma, if ever there was!

I have always thought that items uploaded should be checked before being accepted (I think this happened originally?)

We need a third party program to clean up faulty content (haven't we been here before.....).

 

[pware]

I agree it can get frustrating. Fixing a faulty asset (and many can only be fixed by the content creator themselves) will solve the problem for you but if you create and place onto the DLS a layout that contains assets that you have fixed yourself then that same problem is passed onto everyone who downloads your layout.

My preference is to only use DLS items that have no faults but my backup rule is to only use faulty assets that (in order of priority)

1. are flagged with warnings (Trainz 2009/2010) only
2. have simple fixable faults (e.g. unrecognised tags or spelling errors) that will not prevent them from appearing or working
3. that will not be missed if they are downloaded by a user who does not know how to fix them (e.g. non critical scenery items)

But since the DLS assets are free (ignoring the current threads complaining about having to pay a miserly sum to get a priority FCT) then how can we bite the hand of the creators who are feeding us. The only alternative would be for Auran to adopt the same policy that Apple has for its Apps - 100% compliance with the rules and only one allowed source - the DLS.

 

[gremlin1812]

Gremlin1812-
Very reasonable point, but it's not Auran's fault that users upload faulty assets, or items with missing dependancies!

G'Day Originalwelshborde, maybe not directly, but they were accepted for the DLS and Trainzers trusted that they were correct. At the time they seemed to be OK TRS04 worked fine with most but even then there were faults that required fixing, and now the bull is loose the gate is closed:hehe:.

Not blaming anyone but feel more could have been done sooner, I really feel sorry for the new Trainzer who has to contend with this, at least I had previous experience with MSTS.
Regards
Barrie

 

[aodgh0st]

auran could be like the railroads payroll department. turn in a claim (asset) they look it over and tell you to "correct and resubmit". after 50 times of "correct and resubmit" perhaps you might get lucky and get paid. just sayin :hehe:

 

[Yakutsky]

It is too easy to say Auran has no blame for it at all, they present Trainz as it is, with all the free asset downloading, there are heaps of problems with the whole system, even I after a week spend 90percent of my time with Trainz trying to hunt down stuff that was originally even in TS2010 in the first place.

Have agood day.

 

[johnwhelan]

Assets are being corrected over time. New versions and assets being loaded recently have better error checking so if you just download the newer items you should see fewer problems.

There are plans to update the DLS to remove the errors but that will take time. I don't think MSTS had more than one version so the problem isn't so obvious.

In TS2010 you can just select all the assets with errors and disable them so they don't show.

Cheerio John

 

[stovepipe]

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Have a look at Asset-X , there's a thread here somewhere - it eases the fixing process somewhat.

Also repaired content is now beginning to appear regularly on the DLS - I assume because Auran have now started sending out the "please fix it" emails to the original creators.

In January, I expect we will see the first assets become available for community repair, where the original creator has declined to fix or is no longer active. Over time the broken asset problem will diminish, or at least that is the hope.

 

[stovepipe]

It is too easy to say Auran has no blame for it at all, they present Trainz as it is, with all the free asset downloading, there are heaps of problems with the whole system, even I after a week spend 90percent of my time with Trainz trying to hunt down stuff that was originally even in TS2010 in the first place.

Have agood day.

You don't need to download any new assets to enjoy the huge amount of content that is built-in to TS2010, so your comment (bolded) doesn't make much sense.

 

[gremlin1812]

I agree it can get frustrating. Fixing a faulty asset (and many can only be fixed by the content creator themselves) will solve the problem for you but if you create and place onto the DLS a layout that contains assets that you have fixed yourself then that same problem is passed onto everyone who downloads your layout.

My preference is to only use DLS items that have no faults but my backup rule is to only use faulty assets that (in order of priority)

1. are flagged with warnings (Trainz 2009/2010) only
2. have simple fixable faults (e.g. unrecognised tags or spelling errors) that will not prevent them from appearing or working
3. that will not be missed if they are downloaded by a user who does not know how to fix them (e.g. non critical scenery items).

G’Day pware, I have all of your routes and sessions and what great work, as you said, all on the DLS and the few that showed faults in TRS06 were a piece of cake to fix. You and others have obviously thought of the end user in the selection of assets and congratulations and thanks are very much in order.
I have decided to fix what can be fixed easily and then look at either substituting assets or deleting items that are just too problematic.
I have not given up, just pulling in the reigns so to speak, play with what is not broke and gradually find and fix what I can and throw out what I cannot.
Regards
Barrie

 

[Euphod]

I agree, it is a pain to have to fix things, but it's a worse pain to have to MAKE everything yourself!